Laughing While They Learn: School Tours at Falcon Rest

Laughing While They Learn: School Tours at Falcon Rest
McMinnville, Tenn. (stop between Nashville & Chattanooga or Pigeon Forge) www.falconrest.travel

   The worst grade I made in high school was in history. When I went to college, the first "A" I made was, believe it or not, in history.
   What was the difference? It was the teachers. My high school teachers taught history like it was dead. For that first college teacher, history was alive, and he made the people of history come alive to his students!
     At Falcon Rest, the Victorian mansion where history is fun, it goes without saying that the young people in visiting school groups do a lot of laughing.
     What the kids don't realize (and we don't tell them), is that the whole time they are laughing, they are LEARNING as well. And more than that ... they're discovering that the people of the past are real people, just like them. As one young lady commented to a friend at the back of the bus during our area step-on tour, "Now I love history."

I realized I'd succeeded in making history come to life when a first grader in the front row of this Grades 1-6 group raised her hand and asked, "Is it true that, when you were a little boy, they really had horses and carriages instead of cars?"

Menus are simple to keep the food kid-friendly and costs low for student tours. Click here to
download our student tour profile sheet
with prices and details.

All three of our history shows, complete with entertainment, food, and mansion tour, work great for school groups.
(For the peace of mind of teachers and tour operators, the mansion rooms ARE roped off for school tours.)

The Vaudeville-style history show and tour is the best choice for younger elementary groups. The Victorian Gentleman holds kids spellbound with stories about the five Faulkner children who grew up at Falcon Rest. The walk-through tour of the mansion is followed with shopping for toys from a bygone era in the Victorian Gift Shop and, time permitting, old-fashioned games on the grounds.
Fifth-graders through college age love becoming real people from local or national 1897 history in "Murder at the Mansion." They'll never forget the characters they portrayed.
"Ghost at the Mansion" appeals to youngsters' natural fascination with haunts, though our alleged spirits are friendly instead of scary. The "previously living" characters they assume span recorded history, from ancient Rome with Caesar and Cleopatra to modern pop culture with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.
A step-on guided tour is an excellent addition to a day trip, with true but funny stories about the history of "Mac-minnnn-ville," Tennessee, including our rich Civil War heritage, and a stop at the beautiful waterfalls of Rock Island State Park.

If you don't work with student groups, please pass this information along to area tour operators who do or to local teachers and parents.

-- The Victorian Gentleman, George McGlothin

For reservations, information or itinerary planning, call The Victorian Lady, Charlien McGlothin,
at 931-668-4444, or e-mail us at falconrest@falconrest.com.

Aren't tourism shows wonderful? This years' ABA marketplace in Texas was no exception.
At left Nancy Sloan of Talbot Tours in San Jose begs for mercy from the Victorian Gentleman's antics at the Tennessee Dinner. At right, the Gent (out of costume) auditions some of the "floozies" in Old Fort Worth for the part of Nan the Town Madam in our "Murder at the Mansion." What a job!